


Unexpected Allies

by longforthepast



Series: Intergalactic Politics and Relations [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon What Canon?, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical swearing, Endgame happened just not like that, Everybody Lives, F/M, Forget the Laws of Physics, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Venom Symbiote (Marvel), M/M, Major US Landmarks, Mild Language, Non-Graphic Violence, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21550039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longforthepast/pseuds/longforthepast
Summary: The Guardians received Natasha's transmission about Venom loud and clear, and being the responsible universe savers they are, they can't just leave the Avengers to handle the Klyntar on their own.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, Gamora/Peter Quill
Series: Intergalactic Politics and Relations [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1273886
Comments: 32
Kudos: 415





	1. Shovin' Into Overdrive

**Author's Note:**

> This is set before the end of "Unconventional Methods". Eddie and Venom are "under review" to become Avengers. It can probably be read on its own but I do reccomend reading the prior story first.

Her long range communicator pinged in the middle of the fight, distracting Rocket for just long enough that he got kicked away, scrambling at the edge of the platform, hundreds of meters above the ground. Gamora dispatched the mercenary attempting to kill her with ruthless efficiency, twisting and breaking the other woman’s wrist before flipping her to the ground and handcuffing her. 

“You’re the Nova Corp’s problem now,” she said, pulling the dagger and guns from the woman’s belt and coat. Groot had finished with their mercenaries, all four of them neatly wrapped in vines and branches, and was now helping Peter to finish the woman who had grabbed his blasters early in the fight, leaving him to try and get close to take her down without being shot. Groot’s solution had been, unconventional, in that they had picked up and hurled Drax at the woman’s back, knocking her down and allowing Peter to cuff her and retrieve his blasters. The mercenary who had kicked Rocket had taken off, scrambling up the tiered platforms to their ship. Nebula sprinted after him, clearing the gaps between the golden platforms easily. Gamora followed her, lagging just a few steps behind.

The ship started before he even reached it, taking off into the hazy atmosphere. The mercenary jumped, but missed the rapidly rising gangway and rolled to the edge of the platform. His eyes went wide as Nebula raced up to him. Faced with the option of capture or death, he hurled himself off the side of the platform, careening to his doom in the noxious lower atmosphere. Gamora and Nebula stood at the edge, watching his dark figure become smaller until it disappeared in the yellow-green clouds. 

“What was the message about?” Nebula asked, staring disapprovingly at the point he’d vanished. Gamora unclipped the communicator from her belt and opened the message. Her sister leaned in to look at the message too. 

> _ From Natasha R (Terra, C-53): hi. dealing with something weird. guy is human according to  _ _ medical files but he’s got this thing that looks kind of like tar that covers him, calls itself venom and eats people. we think it’s extraterrestrial. going to ask carol and thor, could use extra help though ;)  _

Attached was a series of blurry images of a man in an alleyway gradually being engulfed  by what looked like a pile of slime with teeth longer than most of the daggers Gamora had stashed in the depths of her jacket. 

“That’s a Klyntar,” Nebula said looking at the images and reading over the message. She collapsed her sword and attached it to her belt. “If there’s one there’s more and Terra’s doomed. There’s nothing we can do for them now.” She turned to walk back to the ship before Gamora caught her arm.

“You should know better than anyone here that Terrans are great at doing the impossible. They’ll fight back and come out on top despite everything,” Gamora said. The rest of the Guardians came up to the two of them and Gamora looked out at their little group. “We’ll drop these guys on Xandar and then we’re going back to Terra, the Avengers need our help.” Quill nodded and hung to the back of the group as they made their way across the platform to the Benatar. 

Gamora followed close behind him, reaching up to his hand as they walked. He turned around to face her, smiling and pulling her close. 

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said wrapping his arm around her waist. 

“Me too.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, a little short to be comfortable but it worked. “Are you okay with all the trips to Terra we’ve been making? I know it’s hard for you, but if you don’t want to go we can send Nebula with some of the others and the rest of us can keep running Nova Corp missions.”

“Nah, I’m fine. It’ll be good to see the Avengers again and maybe we can make a quick detour out to the Grand Canyon. My mom always wanted to take me and we never got the chance.” He stared off at the hazy horizon, the binary star system almost visible through the smog. “It’s probably not even that impressive, I mean what can Terra have that everywhere else we’ve been. It’s stupid, forget about it.” Gamora pulled back and placed her hand under Peter’s chin, forcing him to look at her. 

“After we take care of the Klyntar, we’re taking a trip to this Grand Canyon. If it means so much to you I’m happy to go with you.” Gamora smiled as she and Peter walked up the gangway into the ship and sat down. Peter flipped control over to Rocket and started plotting out navigation. 

“Alright, one quick stop on Xandar for fuel, food, and officially making these guys the Nova Corp’s problem,” Peter said as he pulled up the video feed on their impromptu holding cell containing the two mercenaries, “And then it’s twelve jumps to Terra.” Rocket whooped and sent the ship racing out of the atmosphere into the jump point. 

* * *

The efficiency with which the Nova Corp worked would be alarming to anyone who wasn’t expecting a swarm of low ranking soldiers to descend on one’s ship the second it landed, transporting the mercenaries to interrogation and booking rooms, taking statements from each of the Guardians and checking to make sure the ship was safe to handle another mission. When the Guardians descended, they were met by Nova Prime who prepared to hand them their next mission briefing before Gamora intervened.

“Nova Prime with all due respect, we need to go to Terra, the Avengers are dealing with a Klyntar and we feel that they would benefit from us being there to help. We’ll report back for the next part of the mission as soon as we’re done.”

“We will?” Rocket asked. 

Gamora turned to him, and through clenched teeth said, “Yes. We will.”

“We’ll hold you to that,” Nova Prime responded, “Now go, help your friends. And if you need reinforcements don’t hesitate to call.” Gamora smiled and thanked her before Quill herded the Guardians back onto the ship, the last of the landing crew exiting after replenishing the food stores. They settled back into their seats, Rocket grumbling about not getting a chance to move around before they got started again. 

“You’ll be fine Rocket, this won’t take too long and there will be plenty of time to move while we’re chasing this thing down,” Quill answered, “Did they say where the thing was?” Gamora went to check the communicator but Nebula spoke before she could.

“No, she sent the pictures and said that they could use help,” she replied, face impassive as they left Xandar’s atmosphere went through the first jump point. A flash of light left them in the correct branch of the Milky Way, surrounded by soft blue and pale yellow light. They hardly had time to bask in the beauty as Peter directed them to the next jump point. White light flashed through the ship every time they made a jump until they made a jump into a point completely devoid of stars or color at all and the ship was jolted sideways. 

“You idiot!” Rocket shouted as he flipped the controls over to him and forced the ship back toward the jump point. The lights flickered and then extinguished as Quill diverted power from any non-essential uses. 

“I’m sorry,” Peter snapped, “the routes don’t exactly come with a ‘Caution Black Hole’ warning on this thing!” Rocket muttered under his breath as he pushed the ship to the point where the supports groaned and threatened to collapse under pressure. For half a second the port engine gave out, sending them spiraling towards the black hole.

“Everyone put your space suits on I’m cutting life support for power,” Rocket ordered, blue hexagonal barrier already forming between the rest of the ship and him. The rest of the Guardians quickly activated theirs, and not a second before or after everyone was safe, Rocket turned off life support and the Benatar shot toward the jump point like an arrow loosed from a bow. Bright white light filled the ship as they passed through the jump and to the safety of a jump point without a black hole. The ship drifted for a few seconds in the upper atmosphere of a pink and orange planet that reflected the light from the nearby star so strongly it practically glowed. 

“Please say that we’re never using that jump point again,” Mantis said, gripping the handles of her seat tightly. 

“Oh yeah, that one is getting marked down as a ‘do not stop’ and we’ll take a different route next time,” Peter said, flipping the control back to him and firing the engines up again. 

“What? No ‘thanks for saving our butts, Rocket?’ ‘you’re a hero, Rocket?’ ‘good job fixing Quill’s mistake, Rocket?’ I just saved our lives and all you’re concerned about is navigation?” Rocket asked, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“That was some damn good piloting,” Peter said, slowly guiding the ship to the next jump point, “Sorry you had to do it in the first place but you handled that better than I probably would have.” He slugged Rocket lightly on the shoulder before settling deep back into the seat. Despite not saying anything, a soft smile crossed Rocket’s face. 

“How much time has passed?” Nebula asked.

“Uhh, two months, shit.” Peter said, pushing the ship forward faster, passing through the next several jump points easily. Drax stood up and moved to the back of the ship and started to descend the stairs to the living area.

“Drax, where are you going?” Gamora asked, leaning out of her chair.

“The bathroom. I have not gone in two months. I don’t know why you all are not going.” he replied. Gamora turned around and sighed. 

“He does know that it’s still only been like five minutes for us, right?” Rocket asked. 

“I am groot,” Groot replied. 

“Yeah, yeah I know it’s better to just let him be him but like, shouldn’t he know that by now? He’s been doing the whole space travel thing for longer than any of us except maybe Quill.” Peter shrugged and pushed the ship through the final jump point, coming out high above the blue-green marble swirled with white. 

“Hey, what up Earth,” Quill said, radioing into the network, “This is the Guardians of the Galaxy and we’re gonna be landing at AC1–NY so please don’t shoot us down, thank you.”

“Guardians this is SWORD, you are cleared for landing,” a voice crackled over the other end as Peter descended into North American air space and activated cloaking technology. He set them down gently on the back field of the Avenger’s compound and dropped the gangway, ship refilling with fresh air after the artificial atmosphere that had been cycling through the suits had long since gone stale. The blue gelatin-like suits retreated and the Guardians stood up, exiting the ship and into the harsh midday Terran sunlight. Natasha, Carol and Rhodey walked out to meet them, joy at seeing their space-faring friends and kind-of-teammates palatable across the tarmac. Nebula stepped forward first, all business and immediately began interrogating the three Avengers. 

“Do you think she even said ‘hi’?” Peter whispered to Gamora as the two walked over. She elbowed him somewhere near his kidney, causing him to muffle a grunt of pain.

“Maybe, she does like Natasha, so the odds are good,” she smiled back, looping her pinky around Quill’s as the two of them followed the winding hallways of the Avengers compound to where their team had settled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title is from Kenny Loggins "Danger Zone"


	2. Choosing my Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Guardian's skepticism isn't unfounded, but in the midst of a series of Avengers operations it's easy for such concerns to be swept away.

Carol sat with Quill and Rocket at a table, map open and the three of them marking which jump points led to dangerous conditions to improve navigation. Their discussion provided soft background noise as Gamora and Nebula listened to Natasha and Rhodey explain what had happened with Venom and the actions they’d taken as a team since.

“I have never heard of a Klyntar leaving their host conscious, much less working with one,” Nebula said. 

“I’d like to meet yours though. They might be conning you and we’ve collectively had more experience with them.” Gamora grimaced, looking at Peter and Rocket who were in a quiet argument, doubtless to avoid alerting her, while Carol sat watching them with her hand on a slide about jump point MSH-1368, a desolate point that served as a shortcut between Alpha Centauri and Xandar. She opened her mouth to butt in when Rocket hopped up on the table and got right in Quill’s face. She grabbed the Racoon by the back of his suit and dragged him away, sighing deeply and throwing the slide into the ‘safe’ folder.

“Okay, we’ve got a holo conference with the whole team later so if you want to join in on that you’re all welcome,” Natasha said, “They’ll be on and you can ask them questions.” Nebula and Gamora looked at each other and nodded, both knowing that this would not reveal the symbiote’s true nature, but would provide enough information to decide if this warranted further investigation. 

“We’ll set you all up with your own holo links so you get the floor time you want,” Rhodey said. 

“Thank you,” Gamora said, “Hopefully we won’t have to do anything.”

“But if we feel that it’s a threat we will take it down,” Nebula finished. Natasha looked over her shoulder at Carol who looked up, as she tossed another slide into the ‘safe’ folder. She inclined her head once, the subtlest nod she could manage. Natasha turned back to the conversation at hand. 

“The call doesn’t start until eight, you’re welcome to make yourselves at home in the meantime,” she said. Nebula and Gamora thanked her and made their way to the training room, eager to stretch out after the battle. 

Peter and Rocket finally gave up on arguing, leaving Carol to sort the jump points on her own while they went to the media room and the mechanic shop respectively. Natasha and Rhodey took the seats next to Carol, watching as she flicked through the remainder of the jump points. 

“How do we think they’re going to react?” Rhodey said. 

“Probably like I did,” Carol said, “The Klyntar don’t have a good reputation throughout the galaxy.” She swiped a jump point into the ‘risky’ folder and leaned back in her seat. “What’s Eddie been up to lately?”

“Journalist stuff,” Rhodey said. Carol looked over.

“His last article was on who in the Bay Area gets the brunt of smog pollution and then a garbage incinerator was conveniently destroyed the next weekend,” Natasha said. Carol closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face, opening her eyes to look up when she was done. 

“Was anyone hurt?”

“Nope, just very, very scared,” Natasha said. “I’m not always crazy about their methods but they’re definitely doing the right thing.”

“Yeah, me too,” Carol said. The three of them sat in a rare moment of peace and silence, until FRIDAY chirped up, reminding them of the impending call with Tony and Steve to work out some issues that were arising with SWORD before the group call later.

* * *

Eight o’clock came and the room was full of heroes from all across the globe calling in to check in and report. Bucky had warned that Sam couldn’t make it due to a VA commitment and Wong was standing in for Doctor Strange as Stephen was “otherwise occupied with protecting the dimension” as the sorcerer had put it. Hank had popped by briefly to warn the group that Hope, Scott and Eddie would be late as they were working on a raid of an AIM base in Silicon Valley. Peter Parker was busy talking with Tony and Pepper about college applications and trying to talk Tony out of calling MIT personally. (“Harley didn’t object!” “He’s at Virginia Tech anyway!” “He wanted to stay close to home, I can’t fault him for that. Where else are you thinking kid?”)

“Alright,we’ll start without half our Bay Area team and catch them up to speed when they get in,” Rhodey said. “I hope everyone’s well and taking care of themselves, we only have a few things on the schedule today, this shouldn’t take more than half an hour.” 

“First off, I’m sure you’ve all noticed that the Guardians are here today,” Natasha said, “I sent them a transmission about Venom when we still thought they were a threat. They got caught up on their way here but they just wanted to check in and make sure Eddie and Venom are cool.” She uncrossed her arms, gesturing to the group as a whole. “Any testimonies or questions you feel relevant.”

“I’ve been on one mission with them,” Okoye said, the whole room turning to her. “Shuri and I were at the Oakland Embassy working on outreach when we were notified of an arms dealer bringing a shipment of what we thought were stolen vibranium weapons into the port. Hope and Scott were doing work in the Quantum Realm so we reached out to Eddie.”

“And Eddie is the host?” Gamora asked. 

“Yes,” Okoye continued, “He’s a journalist. We met at a coffee shop to discuss the plan and he was polite, discreet and focused, anything we could ask for on a covert operation. We decided that The Dora stationed at the Embassy and I would attempt to secure the cargo with the harbor police and that Venom would work to draw the smugglers away and into a trap that Shuri set.”

“How’d it go?” Rocket asked from his perch on Groot’s shoulder. 

“Perfectly fine,” Okoye said, “Until we realized the weapons were extra terrestrial and not vibranium.” Parker visibly flinched, having heard the story hundreds of times but the fear still very real for him, especially after his experiences. 

“Venom decided to charge in and take the fire instead of drawing them away. Quite a bit of the cargo was destroyed or damaged but there was enough to convict the smugglers.” 

“And was the Klyntar in control?” Nebula asked. 

“Between Vee and Eddie?” Shuri asked. The Guardians looked among themselves and nodded. “It was pretty equal. They worked together but when it comes to fighting it seems that Vee has more control.” 

“And in daily life?” Nebula asked. 

“Mostly Eddie,” Peter chimed in, “Vee has some influence, but mostly just on what they eat and a few things with Eddie’s job.” 

“I heard my name, what’s up?” Eddie asked, his hologram flickering to life alongside Scott and Hope. Gamora was taken aback by how normal he looked. At a quick glance, there was no evidence that he carried a Klyntar. No signs of deadness behind the eyes, or extreme emaciation. He looked healthy, strong even under the gray sweater and leather jacket he wore. Had she not known that he was the host, she would have overlooked the movement of the jacket as a trick of the hologram but no, it was definitely moving and there were definitely eyes peeking out from the collar. 

“We’re a little late to the party but we heard that you were dangerous and decided to come and check on our friends,” Quill answered. Eddie leaned back and blinked rapidly, his hands still in his pockets. His collar bristled. 

“And who exactly are you?” he asked. 

“We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy,” Peter said. “I’m Starlord, this is Gamora, Nebula, Drax, Mantis, Rocket and Groot.”

“I am groot.”

“The tree talks,” Eddie said, his eyes going wide. 

“Yeah and he’ll mess you up if you try and hurt our friends,” Rocket added.

“So does the racoon.”

“I’m not a racoon!” 

“Alright trash panda, chill out,” Peter said, smirking as he did so. Gamora went back to scanning Eddie. 

“We’re just here because we got a transmission and we wanted to make sure that Earth is still safe,” Gamora explained. 

“So as you’ve heard Venom’s a great asset to the team and we’re all glad they’re here, can we get the check in done? We’ve got some data we’d like to analyze,” Hope said. She turned to Scott who nodded. “The AIM raid was mostly successful. None of us got seriously injured and we were able to retrieve a fair bit of information. We’ll scan it for any references to work on the quantum realm or anything else that we should keep an eye on.”

“Good,” Steve said, “any word on where the big R&D lab is?”

“Nothing new,” Scott said, “They did mention Blue Stallion but I think that’s their Denver base. You know, with the devil horse statue and all.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Tony said. The room fell quiet, a pause in the conversation allowing everyone to take a moment to collect themselves

“I was doing some research on who was in charge of the Grand Canyon when that barrel that had a geiger hit recently was put in,” Eddie said, “There’s some evidence linking them to HYDRA in the old SHIELD databases so I was wondering if anyone could come check that out with us.”

“What do you expect to find?” Steve asked. 

“Don’t know, but that ore had to be dumped somewhere and I think we should know where it went,” Eddie said. Murmurs bounced around the room, quiet debates about the nature of the mission filling the air.

“I don’t know how many people we could assign to work that,” Tony said, “Those of us who aren’t doing regular patrols and PR stuff are working on the AIM case.”

“We don’t think it’s going to be a big case, we just want to make sure there isn’t a problem.”

“I can go,” Clint said. The room turned towards him. “I’ve been on missions for SHIELD in the area and I still have a few contacts, the kids are all in school this week so I really don’t have an excuse to get out of it now that Lila’s driving.”

“Aw, she passed?”

“Yeah and now someone has to come over and teach her what real defensive driving looks like since she won’t listen to me,” he replied, staring at Natasha pointedly. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there for Coop’s birthday next month, we can do it then,” she said, dismissing his worries with a wave of her hand. “If Clint’s going I’ll go too.”  
“I can come, Sam will be fine solo for a little while,” Bucky added. 

“Anyone else you want on the team?” Tony asked, updating the list of assignments they kept. 

“We’ll come,” Quill said, “if that’s cool with all of you.” Slow nods were passed around the circle, the Guardians’ a bit more hesitant than the rest. 

“I wouldn’t mind going as long as I’m not needed elsewhere,” Wanda said, “It might take me awhile to catch a flight from Edinburgh.” Tony scrolled through the list again, checking to see if she was free to help. 

“I don’t see any conflicts,” he replied, “We can send a jet to get you if you like.”  
“No need,” Wong said, “Should you choose to come I can open a portal for you.”

“Thank you,” Wanda said, “When do we leave?”

“I need at least twelve hours to get to the area, can we do a day so we have time for research and logistics?” Eddie said.

“Can we do two days?” Clink asked. “I want to take some time to go over the topography again, find any lookouts Barnes and I can use.”

“Fine by us,” Eddie said. 

“Alright it’s settled then,” Steve said, “Two days from now I’m expecting everyone who volunteered to be at the safe-house in Flagstaff. Check in there and wait for the rest of the team to arrive.”

“We can take anyone who’s here on the Benatar so long as you don’t get motion sick,” Rocket said. Natasha laughed, Clint turning beet red. 

“It was one time and Bobbi did a downspin out of a loop it’s not my fault,” he said, “Can you guys stop by the farm and pick me up?” Quill nodded, giving Clint a thumbs up. 

“If you’re making the stop I don’t suppose we can get a lift?” Eddie said. 

“Wrong side of the country man,” Clint said, “You’re still driving.” 

“Alright that’s enough,” Natasha said, recognizing the argument that was about to ensue. “Everyone will meet at the Flagstaff safe house at 21:00 local time in two days, we’ll check in with Steve and Tony, do our recon, decide if we need to act and hopefully be out of there before the end of the week. Understood?” The heroes going on the mission nodded. “Good, now onto the next matter at hand. Tony, Pepper, you two are in charge of this one.”

“So the holiday party,” Tony said, a smile crossing his face as he turned to Pepper. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from R.E.M.'s "Losing my Religion"
> 
> This chapter is up early because Sunday is going to be an essay writing day for me!


	3. Nothin' Yet, You Ain't Been Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trust and the canyon remain elusive as the Avengers and Guardians settle into their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot of my favorite foods in it and almost had a lot more about geology because I was a fool and tried to write (and publish) this during finals week. Apparently I learned something from Unconventional Methods and gave myself time to proofread and took out a lot about the geology of the Grand Canyon. If you're interested I'm happy to scream at you about rocks on my tumblr (suitemadameblue) but this chapter wasn't the place for that.

The landscape around Flagstaff was as close to another planet as Eddie had gotten in his life, though Vee relished in showing him images of actual planets they’d visited. The red-yellow landscape capped by white snow flew by as the two raced on their motorcycle. Vee acted as Eddie’s helmet and jacket, absorbing the fine sand that was kicked up by the other people on the road and insulating him against the cold. 

_“We should go straight to the Canyon,_ ” Vee suggested, “ _We’re better at tracking than any of them. We’d be able to find HYDRA first.”_

“ _Yeah, but we’re on a team now. Barnes can help us get in if there is a base and Tony wants us to do a blood test to check if the new tablets are working,”_ Eddie replied. He pulled the bike to the left a little bit and pulled around the RV that cruised the highway with them. A sign read “Flagstaff 5 Miles” and Eddie sighed, shifting his position on the bike as best he could, Vee balancing the bike for him as he did so. They should have stopped for a break half an hour ago, not for food or anything, just so Eddie could stretch his legs. 

_“Clint texted us,”_ Vee said, _“Rest of the team is at safehouse. Ordering barbecue for dinner, want to know what we want.”_

 _“I wouldn’t mind barbecue nachos if they’ve got them. I’m guessing you want the largest platter they have?”_ Vee purred in agreement and tapped out the message to Clint and hit send. He replied a few minutes later with a smiling emoji and Vee conveyed it to Eddie as they raced past a sign for an observatory and planetarium, following the directions Steve had sent him. One more left, then go straight for two miles and the safehouse would be on the left. He’d been warned that it looked like every other house on the dirt road so to look for a green bow on the mailbox. Several red bows were tied to fence posts as he steered carefully around the bend, Vee reaching out to stabilize the bike on the ground when he hit a patch of ice. The pulse of appreciation Eddie sent as they pulled into the driveway made Vee purr happily, squeezing him gently. 

They retracted as Eddie’s helmet, still wrapped around his neck to keep him warm. The two of them walked up to the door and Eddie knocked and held still as his retina was scanned. The lock clicked open and Eddie pushed in, the smell of coffee, sweat and the early stages of a cracking fire hitting his nose. 

Bucky and Clint were sitting at the table, a 3D topographic map open on the table, Clint marking several points on the walls of the canyon. 

“Hey guys,” Eddie said, closing the door behind him. Bucky lifted a hand silently in greeting.

“What’s up alien dude?” Clint asked, dismissing the hologram. “Nat went out to get the food, briefing tablet is on the table.”

“I thought the Guardians would be here?” Eddie said, looking around. 

“Gamora and Nebula went with Nat, the rest of them are upstairs,” Bucky said, “You seem eager to meet them.”

“Eager to get first introductions over with,” he grumbled. 

“Yeah, I can see that,” Clint said. He picked up a staff from the table and clicked a button, extending it to its full length before slamming the end of it against the ceiling repeatedly. “Guys Eddie’s here! Get down here and play nice!” Something thumped against the ceiling, followed by a muffled shout in a language Eddie didn’t recognize. Vee bristled, the collar of Eddie’s “jacket” puffing up like a startled cat. They had barely calmed down when The Guardians stumbled down the stairs. A tree, a racoon, a buff green man with red tattoos followed by a woman with antenna all tripping over each other. Behind them came a man in a red leather jacket, blasters strapped to his hips. 

_“He’s human,”_ Vee says almost in awe.

 _“Yeah love, I guess so,”_ Eddie replied, _“Why is that surprising?”_ Instead of answering with words Vee shared the concept, stories of Peter Quill and the Guardians racing across the galaxy, criminals turned heroes, Quill himself a criminal since he was young. 

“Um, hey,” Eddie said, smiling at the Guardians. Wanda came in from the other room, smiling at Eddie before sitting next to Clint. The two of them began whispering, Bucky adding his two cents occasionally. 

“So, you’re Eddie?” the racoon said. 

“Yeah.” He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and looked around nodding. “So you’re not a racoon?”

“He’s not a racoon,” Quill confirmed, “That’s Rocket, the tree is Groot, and this is Drax and Mantis. I’m Peter Quill.” He stuck out his hand to shake and Eddie removed his hand from the pocket, taking Quill’s hand. 

"Yeah, uh, Vee told me a little bit about you,” Eddie said, shivering as Vee manifested a snake-like head from his back and turned to face the Guardians. Quill’s hand went to his hip and wrapped around his blaster. Clint was on his feet and between the Guardians and Eddie in a second.

“It’s alright everyone, no one is getting shot on this mission before it officially starts,” he said, “Eddie and Vee are almost Avengers, we trust them.” Bucky scoffed from his seat at the table as Wanda nodded in agreement. 

“Your friend with the metal arm seems to disagree,” Rocket said. 

“Ignore him, he doesn’t trust anyone but Steve,” Clint said. 

“Not true,” Bucky said, picking up a glass of water and taking a sip. “I trust Natasha. T’Challa and Shuri too.”

“That’s a grand total of four people,” Clint replied, looking to the ceiling for guidance that wasn't coming. He turned to face the table. “My point still stands.” Bucky shrugged and stood up, carrying his glass and Clint’s to the kitchen. Rocket climbed up on Groot’s shoulder, the tree taller than Eddie. 

“The Avengers may have made up their minds about you, but I’m a lot harder to convince,” Rocket said. 

Vee made a clicking sound in the back of their throat and smiled, showing all their teeth. “We mean no harm toward you or anyone else. The only ones who we are permitted to harm are bad people.” 

The door clicked and Natasha emerged, nudging it open with her hip. She carried four large bags of takeout containers, and behind her Gamora and Nebula each carried four more each. Clint and Wanda immediately moved to help them with the food and Eddie stepped up to grab a few bags. Nebula handed two to him, her dark eyes calculating. She lingered on Vee for a moment, watching as the symbiote shot out a tendril to grab one of the bags for Eddie. 

“Thank you,” she said, handing another bag to Groot, who was determined to help. 

“Not a problem,” Eddie replied, “We’re happy to help.”

“Again with the ‘we’ thing,” Quill said, “Do you even have separate identities?”

“Ah, uh, yeah, but we’ve let our thoughts intermingle for so long that we just sort of think together,” Eddie answered, setting the bag down on the table. He rubbed the back of his head, grimacing. “I can usually separate my thoughts enough not to freak out people who don’t know about Vee but when we’re around people who know it’s exhausting so we tend not to bother.”

“You willingly combined your thoughts?” Gamora confirmed. 

“Not at first but after a while, yeah,” Eddie said, Vee wrapping around his neck like a snake, “Look the food’s here and we’re hungry. Can we talk more after dinner?” The Avengers agreed, and Eddie grabbed the bags as the group made their way to the kitchen.

 _“They don’t trust us,”_ Eddie said.

_“You didn’t trust us at first either. They’ll come around”_

_“What?”_ Vee brought forward the memories of breaking into MNBN building, catching Eddie after the plane flew overhead, trying to get him to jump from the window they’d entered from, the second MRI fiasco.

 _“Yeah, yeah, to be fair I thought you were still hell bent on world domination,”_ Eddie replied. 

_“They probably think that too.”_ Vee rumbled as Natasha passed the four boxes to Eddie. Vee manifested a head and tendrils and wasted no time getting to work on the family sized dinner as Eddie chatted with Bucky and Wanda, idly eating his nachos.

Eddie woke up early and slipped downstairs to get started on breakfast. Vee pulled a box of pancake mix down from the cabinets as Eddie set to work looking for eggs and bacon in the fridge. Considering they’d been there for less than a day, it was already packed full. 

“I swear, we should just make scrambled eggs and barbecue,” Eddie said, pushing the cartons of leftovers to the side. He pulled out a full carton of eggs and set them on the counter. 

“Sounds good to me,” someone behind them says. Eddie whipped around, Vee spreading out and covering his torso. Quill stood in the doorway, looking all too normal in sweatpants and a t-shirt in an alien language, ( _“Klyn”_ Vee supplied, _“It says ‘Gears Shif’. Bootleg Earth clothing”_ ) “Are you thinking omelet or burrito?” Vee relaxed around Eddie’s torso, slipping back under his skin. 

“Hadn’t really decided yet,” Eddie said, “We’ll have to make a veggie option for Wanda anyway so omelets would probably be easier.” He turned back to the fridge, pushing the door closed. Without the artificial yellow light, the room was dark, not that Eddie noticed or cared. The dark hasn’t been a problem since he and Vee began opening their bond more. Peter flicked on the light and Vee retreated from Eddie’s eyes, allowing them to adjust normally. 

“Well let’s get started.” Peter began looking in the different cabinets. “We need a pan, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Eddie said. “When was the last time you cooked something?” 

“Few days ago,” Quill says, a cocky smile gracing his face. “When you’re travelling with a group, jobs get divied up pretty evenly and I make a mean Orlonian-Ox Roast.” Eddie stared in shock as Quill pulled out a massive pan and set to work making the omelets. He fumbled with the gas stove briefly, but once he got the burner on he took to Earth cooking like a natural. 

“We can help,” Eddie said, taking another pan from the cabinet and grabbing the leftover containers of barbecue, “It’ll probably be better if the meat's warm before we put them in the omelet.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer it less cooked?” Quill said, cracking another egg into the rapidly filling mixing bowl. Christ, how many omelets would they be making. Eddie and Vee would probably eat five. Barnes was a safe bet for two. Clint, Natasha and Wanda would probably have one each and who knew how many the Guardians would need. 

“Vee certainly would, but I’d prefer it if my meal wasn’t still squirming when I ate it,” Eddie said. He laughed, even as Vee rolled angrily under his skin. 

“Well I guess that’s good to know,” Peter replied. He dug a ladle out of the drawer and dropped a scoop of it into the hot pan, the egg sizzling as it began to cook. Eddie and Peter watched as it bubbled. 

“You should flip it.” 

“What no way! Not yet!”

“Are you kidding me you’re gonna burn it!”

“Am not! You’re biased about what fully cooked is!”

“Ngk, definitely not, I take my eggs as close to burnt as you can get. You need to flip it.” 

“Eddie’s right,” Natasha said, walking past. She plugged the coffee pot in and filled the tank with water. “Flip it.” Quill sighed and flipped the egg, only to be greeted by a splotchy black-and brown film on the bottom. Eddie dropped some of the warmed barbecue on top and Vee tossed on the onions they’d been chopping. The rest of the teams began filtering down, Eddie, Vee and Peter continuing to cook as Natasha made coffee. Clint stumbled in last, his rumpled pajamas declaring that “Someone who loves me very much went to New Orleans and got me this t-shirt!” 

Natasha wordlessly slid a mug across the table as he slumped down. Vee stretched out a tendril and set a plate down in front of him. Clint murmured a quiet thanks before taking a napkin and wrapping the omelet up into a burrito shape and shoving the whole thing in his mouth. Wanda grimaced in mock horror and looked to Natasha who mouthed “boys” and rolled her eyes. 

“Do we have a plan?” Nebula asked once everyone had finished their breakfast. Bucky looked down and sighed. Clint made eye contact with a devious smile crossing his face. 

“We’re gonna be tourists.”

* * *

The ranger at the station, a young woman with dark brown hair chopped into messy bangs, had advised them not to descend into the canyon as the trails were iced over and the weather was calling for rain. 

“So where are you visiting from?” she asked, looking up from the map the three of them were annotating. 

“Pretty far,” Quill answered, pulling his lips into a tight line and nodding. Gamora covered her mouth with her hand as he scrunched his nose. “It’s a real small town in Missouri you probably haven’t heard of it.” Gamora fidgeted, spinning the disguise bracelet Shuri had sent to the safehouse for some of the Guardians to use. She looked human. It itched and she couldn't wait to get back and take it off. 

“We get that all the time,” she smiled, “We’re just glad that so many people get to see the park.” Gamora smiled, the woman’s excitement palpable in the quiet room. “If you have any questions please ask any ranger you find.”

“We will,” Gamora promised. “Thank you very much.” They took the map offered to them that showed the best places to go and left, the cold, dry air blasting them as they stepped out. 

“Rim Trail maybe?” Peter said, “Walk around, see if we can spot anything weird.” Gamora nodded and the two made their way through the parking lot. 

“Quill and Gamora come in,” Natasha said, her voice slightly distorted by the comm link. 

“We’re here,” Gamora responded, holding up a hand to halt their progress. 

“Eddie and I haven’t found anything in the general museum collections yet but if you’re prepared can you go take a geiger reading in the geology museum and down along the walls of the canyon?”

“Hold up, Clint here,” the archer said, static giving credence to the distance he was away. “Bucky, Groot, Rocket and I can take readings from the walls once we finish with surveillance if you two check out the museum.” Quill sighed and looked toward the tree line that obscured the view of the canyon. 

“Yeah we’ve got that,” he said, Gamora taking his hand, and the two of them walking off toward the museum. 

“Soon,” she smiled, squeezing his hand in promise. 

The readings in the museum had been completely normal, leaving Quill and Gamora to spend a ridiculous amount of time looking at exhibits. Considering the main museum hadn't turned anything up, Natasha and Eddie were taking their sweet time. The view of the canyon from the window had been obstructed by clouds, an event the ranger had called a “rare occurrence.” From above the door, a bell jingled. Gamora turned to see Eddie poking his head in. 

“Nat’s here if you guys are ready to go meet up with Clint and the crew,” he said. For a brief second, his eyes marbled black and white before he looked around normally. “They found a ‘hike’ we might want to do.” 

“Oh,” Peter looked to Gamora. “Oh. Oh yeah that sounds great.” She took Peter’s hand and the two of them followed Eddie out to the Jeep, which Natasha had kept idling. The two of them hopped in the back. 

“What did the others find?” Gamora asked.

“They didn’t say,” Eddie said, “Clint sent a transmission with coordinates and a winky face and that was it.” Natasha shifted gears and floored it, chains on the tires grabbing the icy surface and tearing out of the parking lot. 

“Fools,” Gamora sighed. “Why do I always end up with the idiots?”

“Hey!”

“Present company included.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman–Turner Overdrive


	4. Somethin' Happenin' Somewhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long everyone! This semester is ROUGH and the only reason this is done now and not next week when I'm on break is because I went to an author talk and fundamentally disagreed with the guy and finished this out of spite. So whoever tells you that spite isn't a valid motivator is definitely lying.

Natasha slammed the door open, Clint and Bucky sulking behind her. The Guardians, Wanda, and Eddie trailed behind, unwilling to get involved or risk getting snapped at themselves. 

“I cannot believe you two! A location with no context, spelunking without any gear or plans, no scans of the cave for life signs beforehand what were you thinking?”

“That it was too cold for the rattlesnakes?” Bucky said.

“And it looked like fun,” Clint added. He barely flinched under Natasha’s scathing glare and ducked Bucky’s semi-friendly slap to the back of his head. 

“And what if HYDRA  _ had _ been there?” she replied. 

“We’d have handled it,” Bucky replied, self-assured and confident. Natasha scoffed and rolled her eyes, dropping the keys on their hook and heading into the study, files from the museum tucked under her arm. 

“Did any of you find anything useful?” she said, turning back. The Guardians froze. 

“Nebula, Mantis and I found an area to the east with several life-signs underground and strange sonar readings. FRIDAY already cross-referenced them and didn’t find anything so we sent them to Shuri to investigate.” Wanda placed a hand on Natasha’s shoulder, “We’ll figure this out.”

“Was the museum useful?” Drax asked. 

“No,” Eddie said, “but the archives got us some more information on the guy. It seems like he joined HYDRA shortly after leaving the park. The records on SHIELD’s old databases say that he quit the parks service in 2004 joined SHIELD. He didn’t start working under Sitwell?” Eddie trailed off, looking to Natasha for validation. 

“Yeah Sitwell,” Natasha confirmed.

“Until 2007. The buckets weren’t put there with the intent to expose people to radiation, I think he just screwed up then got involved with the wrong people.” 

“Jeez, you been talking to Murdock recently?” Clint asked, dropping his bow and quiver on the table, “‘cause you sound like a lawyer.”

“Uh no, we’ve just been doing weekly dinners with my ex-fiance and her boyfriend,” Eddie explained, “And we’re still dealing with the Life Foundation case.” 

“Regardless, once Shuri gets back to us with those readings we’ll make a plan and see if there is HYDRA activity in the area,” Natasha said, “I’m going to check in with Tony and Shuri, see if they’ve found anything. Eddie, you still need to talk to Tony after I do so stay close. The rest of you take the time to prepare for the worst. We may have a stakeout tonight.” The rest of the team nodded, dispersing around the house. Natasha held the door open for Eddie and Peter followed her in and took seats in the worn green-blue armchairs while Natasha set up the holopad. It flickered to life and Tony and Shuri soon stepped onto the other circles of light. The images were steady but flickered with movement as the projector followed them around their respective labs. 

“Find anything?” Tony asked.

“Only that Clint and Bucky are bigger idiots than I could have ever imagined,” Natasha said. Eddie snorted and Shuri and Tony turned to him. 

“You. How are the tablets working?” Tony said, pointing at Eddie. 

“We are not nutrient deficient,” Vee said, manifesting a head from Eddie’s back and causing Peter to flail out of his chair, “but they are not fun.”

“Well, what do you want, pop rocks?” Tony asked.

“They taste like chalk,” Eddie said. He opened his arms before clasping his hands together between his knees and leaning forward. “Can you add flavoring?” 

“What do you want them to taste like?”

“Chocolate,” Vee said without hesitation. Peter laughed, before attempting to disguise it as a cough when all eyes in the room turned to him. 

“We’ve also been trying to get phenylethylamine levels up naturally,” Eddie added, “So lots of red meat, beans, nuts, and obviously dark chocolate.”

“Alright, if you’re feeling alright we can probably skip the blood sample this week and start going to once a month,” Tony said and Eddie nodded. He excused himself and made his way out of the room, allowing Natasha and Peter to continue with the discussion.

“So?” Natasha said. 

“Well it’s not a US nuclear bunker,” Shuri replied with a smirk. She flicked her wrist, a hologram emerging within the hologram. “And it doesn’t look like HYDRA either.”

* * *

Nebula’s comm crackled as Bucky came on, confirming that there was no external security around the entrances to the bunker they’d found two days prior. She sat in a small cave a quarter mile away with Gamora, Clint and Eddie, all four of them waiting for a signal to move. 

“Alright then, Rocket detonate the bomb. Once it goes off, Clint and Bucky will provide cover while The Guardians move in to take the main entrance, Eddie, Wanda and I will take the auxiliary,” Natasha said. For a brief moment, the only sound in the canyon was the whistling of the wind. It was all interrupted by the bone-shaking  _ boom _ of a steam bomb releasing several hundred gallons of water vapor in the air to simulate an explosion. Gamora and Nebula rappelled off the ledge, Venom engulfed Eddie and the two of them leaped to the opposite canyon wall. Nebula looked up, watching them slide down the sheer limestone and sandstone face, leaving dust and claw marks in their wake. She and Gamora dodged around boulders and they leaped across the river before stopping behind a small bounder pile. People in dark blue combat gear filtered out of the doorway to the base, clambering up what sounded like a metal ladder through a small hole usually concealed by another large boulder. 

“This terrain is not ideal,” Drax murmured from a few boulders over. Mantis shushed him and peeked around the side of the rock. 

“They are gone,” she said after a moment, in which another small explosion sounded in the opposite direction. 

“Mantis is right,” Clint said, “I’ve got a putty arrow 300 meters west of you, they’re dealing with that right now. If you’re gonna make a move now’s the time.” Gamora nodded and took off running for the entrance, dropping down the hole and rolling away as Nebula landed right behind her. Peter, Mantis, and Drax clambered down the rungs set into the rock face. For a moment the only sound in the room was their breathing. 

“Where to?” Gamora asked. Nebula squinted in the dim light of the room before pointing to the corridor that led opposite the canyon floor, deeper under the rock. The five of them crept through the halls, ready for the fight that didn’t come. 

After several tense minutes, they came to a large room, abandoned but still alive with the thrum of machines. 

“Nice to see that you made it,” Natasha said, crouching on the seat of a chair, all while watching the files download to flash drive she had plugged in. Wanda sat next to her on the desk, spinning magic between her fingers. 

“Did you run into anyone?” Gamora asked. 

“No.” Venom replied, dropping from the ceiling. The Guardians jumped, Peter reaching for his blasters and Gamora and Nebula wrapping a hand around their swords. “But it’s unlikely that they’ve all left. We were being watched.” They dropped a crushed security camera to the floor. 

“Not surprised,” Wanda said, “Who was it?” 

“Working on it?” Natasha said, flicking through files with dizzying speed. Nebula sat down next to her and took over scrolling, processing the information far faster than Natasha could. Gamora stood next to her, scanning the information too. While they worked Peter and the other Guardians began exploring the lab. 

“We should see if they have any prisoners,” Mantis said, reading the directory next to the elevator and pointing to the detention level. Wanda joined them, her eyes glowing briefly red. 

“There’s no one here but us,” she said. “We shouldn’t split up now anyway.” She crossed her arms over her stomach and rocked on her heels. “This place feels bad.” 

“It does,” Mantis added. “We should leave soon.” 

“Good news, we can,” Natasha said. “We found their expenses, their current projects, their backers and a whole lot of other things.” 

“So we’re ready to leave,” Venom said. They moved to the tunnel from which they came and narrowed their eyes. “Someone’s there.” 

“Who?” Nebula asked, moving to peer down the corridor. 

“Don’t know yet,” they said. With that, the lights went out and a blast of red light crackling with electricity crossed the room to where Venom had been standing. There was a howl of pain and then a loud  _ thump.  _

“Everyone night-vision now!” Natasha ordered “Guardians, find Venom! Scarlet Witch provide cover!” 

“On it,” Wanda said, her eyes and hands glowing, illuminating a small pool of light around her. A blast was shot at her. Then another. And another. 

“Forget that!” Natasha said quietly, the noise only crackling through the comms, and then it was heavily distorted. “Draw as little attention to yourself as possible, Gamora, Nebula find me and we’ll take them out. Mantis and Drax you help Wanda find Venom and get clear as soon as you have them. Nebula looked back to where she thought the Guardians had been standing and flipped the night-vision goggles over her eyes. The others scattered in various shades of green and Nebula turned on her heel to follow Gamora who dove behind a console to sit down next to Natasha. 

“I saw three,” Gamora said. 

“I only saw two when I was looking,” Natasha said. Nebula popped up and fired her blaster, two green shots echoing down the corridor followed by two dull thuds as the bodies hit the floor. Another blast of red electricity crossed the room and Natasha popped up, throwing a small silver disc cracking with electricity. It clicked when it landed, and she pressed a button on her gauntlets. A strangled scream was heard before the final attacker hit the floor. 

“Scarlet Witch!” Natasha shouted. “You got them?” 

“No!” Wanda replied, raising a palm-full of magic and causing all with night-vision goggles on to rip them off. “We can’t find them and I can’t sense them.”

“Neither can I,” Mantis added, her voice small. Drax and Peter placed their hands on her shoulder and Wanda rushed over to Natasha. Natasha took hold of her free hand in both of hers and gave a soft smile. She rubbed her callused fingers over the backs of Wanda’s hands, something the younger girl had once mentioned that her mother used to do when she was overwhelmed. 

“We’re going to have to go on without them. They’ll be fine,” she said, blinking away her own tears as the drops welled up in Wanda’s. She turned towards the tunnel the attackers had come from and held up her wrist, a hologram of the facility springing from her gauntlet casting her face in teal light. “This way will take us out, stay alert and radio to the others to draw any guards away.” 

The Guardians along with Natasha and Wanda emerged from the complex to Clint and Bucky raining fire on a small squad of the guards, who were protected by a glowing red energy field. Wanda raised a hand and threw the guards against the canyon wall. 

“Where’s Venom?” Bucky asked. 

“They disappeared while we were inside,” Nebula replied, blasting a guard that had popped up to shoot them. “We have to go back for them.”

“Give it a few minutes,” Natasha said, “The last time I had a mission with them they got captured on purpose to get information from the Reapers.”

“Yeah but that was a gang,” Clint said, a grappling arrow  _ thunking _ into the opposite canyon wall. He grabbed his bow and jumped, swinging down and landing next to Natasha. “This is some weird scientist cult.” She grabbed him, one arm around his back the other on his bow just before Clint retracted the line, pulling the two of them out of the canyon. Gradually, the others made their ways out, Wanda and Bucky providing cover as Peter and Gamora jetted out alongside Drax and Mantis. Nebula got in a last few good shots before being scooped up by Wanda and levitated out of the canyon. Clint, Natasha, Peter, and Nebula rained fire on the guards as Bucky scrambled up from the outcrop he held and over the lip of the canyon. 

“Clear,” he said. “Rocket drop the second bomb.” There was no thunderous roar. No earth-shaking vibrations. No maniacal cackling crackling through the comms. 

“Rocket?” Gamora said. There was no response. 

“Rocket!” Peter yelled. “We need to go back for them!” Natasha put her hand on his shoulder, holding him back with next to no effort. 

“And we will,” she said, “It wasn’t an accident that Venom and Rocket got taken.” 

“They’ll be expecting us,” Gamora said. 

“No one expects the Spanish Inquisition,” Peter muttered, earning an elbow to the ribs from Nebula. 

“And we’ll be expecting them,” Natasha held up the flash drive. “Whatever they’ve got in there, we can handle.” 

“I don’t know if they can handle who they’ve got in there,” Clint added. “If they got Groot, Rocket’s gonna kill them all. And Venom might just take them on principle.” 

Far below the rock, where even Wanda could not sense them, Venom was throwing themself against the walls of their cell and making the scientists quite nervous. 

“Sir–” one said, turning back to his boss, the man’s red hair an ember under the emergency lights of the lab. 

“Just get me a sample. Whatever it takes.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen


	5. Build Me Up When I'm Sinking

When Venom came to, they were in a glass cage illuminated by a flickering red light that descended into darkness not far from the walls that confined them. Technically, Vee was awake first and once they had determined that there was no immediate danger, squeezed their tendrils around Eddie’s brainstem and reticular formation, jolting their host out of his unconscious state. Eddie screamed as he woke up, the sound coming out garbled through their shared vocal cords. 

_ “Quiet!”  _ Vee hissed,  _ “Don’t want them to know we’re awake.” _

_ “Love, we don’t think that matters,”  _ Eddie replied, directing their attention to a camera in the corner of the cell. Vee shared a crumpled mess of images, frustrated at themselves for not realizing that they were being watched.  _ “It’s alright love, we can handle this.”  _ More red lights rose in the room, illuminating several rows of computers and workstations.  _ “We can handle anything.”  _ Several scientists walked in, one with red hair who exuded enough confidence for the whole lot. He stopped in front of the cell and examined Venom as if he were an uninteresting piece of produce. 

“This one looks more promising,” he said. “Begin testing.” Vee’s memories bounced around their mindscape, snippets of a cold, blue-tinged lab flashing between moments of starvation and being forced into hosts that didn’t fit. They hurled themself against the walls of the cage, Vee’s bling rage consuming all rational thought as the two fought to escape their confines. 

Rocket was awoken by a sharp poke to the side of his head and a distant banging. He blinked several times, the room still dark and blurry. 

“I am Groot,” Groot said from beside him. He was restrained by cuffs holding his arms and legs, with one more around his torso. 

“Nah kid, I’m fine,” Rocket said. He definitely wasn’t. There was a throbbing pain coming from the base of his spine and his limbs were heavy with tranquilizers. “What the hell happened?”

“I am Groot.”

“How did they get the drop on us? I thought you were watching my six!” 

“I am Groot.” Rocket sighed, pressing his head down against the cage, a long rectangle made of wire that barely let him wiggle. If these scientists had managed not only to knock out him but Groot to they might actually be a threat. The lights flicked on in the room, bathing it in a slightly brighter red. Rocket stilled and closed his eyes almost entirely as a shadow fell across him and Groot. 

“Get a tissue sample from the raccoon, I want approximate age and rad exposure. If this thing really has been to space it might give us the answer we’ve been looking for,” someone said. Rocket was toppled forward, his face smushed against the front bars of the cage. A gloved hand grabbed him by the hips and pulled, dragging him partway out of the cage. 

“Scalpel,” someone said. They didn’t have a chance to receive it, as Rocket shoved the rest of the way out. He tackled the scientist holding him to the ground and snatched up the scalpel, dropped in the chaos.

“Catch it! Now!” the first scientist said. Rocket dove under a workbench, shimmying to completely hide. There was a weak spot in the bottom that he wormed his way into, just as the scientists dropped to the ground, blasters glowing red.

“We can’t see it, Dr. Sorel,” one of them said. Rocket listened carefully as they stood up. “It must have slipped out the other side and run for the hall.” Someone crouched down, head at just the right height. Rocket lay down in the drawer and pulled himself forward, slamming it open and knocking the man back. 

“Shoot it!”

“Don’t shoot it you’ll hit Henri!” 

“Then grab it!” In the chaos, Rocket jumped up to where Groot was being held. He reached for the first restraint, only for blaster fire to singe the fur near his ear and mark the wall next to Groot’s head. 

“I am Groot.”

“No, I’m not leaving you!” Rocket answered, frantically sawing at the restraints with the scalpel. Another round of blaster fire came dangerously close to hitting the two and Rocket ducked as one of the scientists lunged to grab him. “I’ll be back, I promise.” He leaped off the table and made a break for the door, sliding into the hall as the scientists lunged again. He scrambled down the hall, blaster fire still ringing out behind him. He turned a corner and found a grate covering an air vent. Ripping it off the wall, he slipped inside and pulled the grate back, no evidence that he’d been there left.

“The hell are you doing Sorel?” another voice said. Rocket peered out the slashes of light, “I provide you with some of my funding, a space to do your work and you thank me by destroying my lab.”

“Dr. Horton!” Dr. Sorel said, “One of the specimens escaped.” 

“I don’t have time for this, find it, and try not to destroy my lab while you do.” Rocket watched as he turned back into a room, and as the door opened he caught a glimpse of something black and viscous being thrown against a glass barrier. 

“Aw, shit,” Rocket sighed. The first scientist, Dr. Sorel, turned back to the men and women he’d been working with and barked orders at them to search the building, his workers scrambling off as he stalked back to his lab. 

* * *

The Avengers and Guardians crowded around a briefing table that was meant for about four people, instead of the nine who stood there elbowing for room. Natasha commanded the head of the table, the only one who really had space to herself. She swiped through the files they had collected, distributing them to people around the table to read. 

“I think we should call in Carol and maybe Bruce or Stephen for this,” Wanda suggested. Clint nodded and dropped his holopad on the table. 

“This Scientist’s Guild doesn’t seem like much together but some of these guys are working with some risky stuff,” Bucky added. “Like Hornet? This guy’s making bio-synthetic cells. I don’t even know what the hell he’d do with that.”

“We should be more concerned about the fact that they’re flammable,” Nebula said, looking at the formula in Hornet’s notes. “If he doesn’t stabilize them they’ll burst into flame as soon as they touch your atmosphere.”

“Oh, Venom’s not going to like that,” Clint added, eyes going wide. He leaned back, only to be nudged forward by Drax. “We’ve been planning for long enough. Nat and I enter from the top vent after FRIDAY cuts the power. Bucky, Wanda, Mantis, and Drax enter from the West, Nebula, Gamora, and Peter come in from the East. It’s easy.”

“It’s never that easy,” Peter said. “Last time we had an ‘easy’ mission four people got captured.”

“That won’t happen this time.” Natasha closed the hologram. “These four are smart, we’ll head out in a few hours once everyone has gotten some rest so we don’t make any stupid mistakes. In the meantime, I think they’ll be fine. Everyone dismissed. Go rest up, alarms set for four hours from now. We leave in four and a half.”

* * *

The only thing keeping Venom grounded to reality was the fact that time passed steadily. Eddie’s new watch didn’t tick, it was some needlessly complicated piece of StarkTech that had mostly given up when they were hit with the red blast. Mostly. It still functioned as a watch, so Venom could keep track of time in their glass prison. The lights in the room hummed, red glow along with high jacket collars making it difficult to distinguish anything about the guards’ faces. They stood at the exits of the room, facing inwards. Watching Venom pace their cell.

_ “The Avengers abandoned us,”  _ Vee said. 

_ “I doubt that,”  _ Eddie answered.  _ “They’re probably just coming up with a plan.”  _

_ “We already have a plan,”  _ Vee huffed. Images of wedging a tendril in one of the joints of the cage flashed across their shared mindscape. The tendril expanded, breaking the glass and allowing the two of them to run free, escaping into the desert’s navy-blue darkness and feasting upon any guards or scientists who stood in their way. Wild, as they were intended to be. Eddie sent a pulse of images of his own. An alarm going off as they broke the cage, forcing Vee back into Eddie’s body. The Avengers finding them eviscerating a scientist and the two of them being locked up in the maximum-security prison only mentioned in passing when Sam, Wanda or Clint were arguing with Tony. Vee grumbled and together they sat down, their back to the edge of the cage and tilted their head back. 

There were eyes in the air vent above them. Two, round yellow eyes stared down at them. Slowly, the eyes retreated and the screws began to work their way out of the vent,  _ plinking _ down on top of the cage when there was no longer enough track to hold the screw in place. When it seemed that the grate would drop and alert the guards that something was amiss, a tiny, furry hand shot out and grabbed it. 

“Rocket,” they whispered. The not-raccoon nodded, sticking his head into the opening, just so Venom could see him. He stuck his head out a little more and surveyed the room. When his eyes fell on the guards and the control panel near the cage, his face scrunched. 

“I’ll get you out,” he mouthed before holding his paws up to indicate that it would have to wait. Venom sunk lower against the wall. Hunger was beginning to gnaw at their stomach and though Eddie had offered up part of his liver, a kidney, his gallbladder, and his spleen, Vee was insistent that they would never do that again. Though if they were kept without food for much longer, they would be faced with the very real possibility of needing to do so to stay alive. They nodded and Rocket disappeared back into the vent. 

_ “Next mission we’ll put a few days worth of phenylethylamine tabs in our belt,”  _ Eddie suggested. 

_ “And chocolate,”  _ Vee added. 

_ “Maybe some m&ms’s,”  _ Eddie said.  _ “Won’t melt.”  _ Vee purred at the idea and constricted closer around Eddie’s body. 

_ “We should rest,”  _ Eddie suggested, aware of the time on the watch through Vee’s mindscape. 

_ “Want to keep watch. You rest first, we’ll wake you if we need a break or anything happens.” _ Vee prodded around Eddie’s mind, helping the process of falling asleep along. 

_ “Love you Vee,”  _ Eddie said as he lapsed into unconsciousness. The symbiote wrapped themself loosely around Eddie’s heart, the steady  _ lub-dub  _ keeping time better than the watch on their wrist. Every beat was a moment the two spent together, and that was infinitely more valuable than any human measure of time. 

Eddie was awoken, not by Vee, but by gunfire in the hallway. The two shot upright, on their feet in a second. Vee was already increasing their mass around Eddie. The hunger echoed through their bond, and once more, Eddie suggested some of his organs that could be used for fuel. Once more, Venom refused. They’d play dead to get a scientist in there to eat if they had to, but they would not harm Eddie. One by one, the guards at the doorway dropped, bodies being thrown into walls by an unseen force. 

“Strange?” they called waiting for sparks of gold light to open a portal beneath them. Instead, Rocket’s shadow stretched comically large into the room, the not-raccoon tossing a ball into the air repeatedly. Next to him was an angular, gangly figure. 

_ “Groot,”  _ Eddie supplied,  _ “The tree thing.” _

_ “Flora colossus, we’ve used one as a host before,”  _ Vee replied. They weren’t particularly good hosts, rigid and bad at digesting the nutrients needed to sustain a symbiote. They also produced oxygen so that was certainly less than ideal. 

“Nah, we’re way cooler than that stupid wizard,” Rocket replied, finally entering the room. As he stepped forward, a net dropped from the ceiling, crackling with red electricity and pinning him and Groot to the ground. “No!”  
“Yes, you stupid rodent,” the scientist with red hair said. “Since Sorel was dumb enough to let you escape, I knew you’d be rescuing your friend.”  
“To be fair they aren’t my friends, I just ain’t leaving anyone behind.” 

“Regardless,” he continued, “I figured that it was best to have some test subjects and with the data he was able to collect, Sorel determined that you, little raccoon are a viable test subject for the procedure.” One of the guards reached into the cage and grabbed Rocket by the back of the neck, deftly avoiding his attempts to scratch and bite him. Another guard scooped Groot up and stuffed him in a black sack, only his head visible over the top. 

“No,” Venom cried, “Let him go!” The guard dropped Rocket in another glass cage. 

“Ready when you are Dr. Horton,” The guard said, sealing it. Horton moved to the control console and pressed a few buttons, a joystick emerging. With it, a robotic arm ascended from the floor of the cage. Venom initially moved to swipe at it, claws fully extended. They hit it and it echoed, the reverberations sending them to the floor. Still disoriented, Eddie did his best to focus on their shared form, pulling Vee back into him as he could as the arm came at them. Vee still reeling from the noise, Eddie jerked them away from the first pinch of the arm. They dodged away from two more snaps of the pinchers before Horton gave up. He pressed the big red button on the control panel and an alarm sounded throughout the lab. Venom screamed, a dissonant combination of the symbiote’s shrieking and Eddie’s howls of pain. 

Rocket pounded against the walls of his enclosure, watching as the arm snatched up a squirming piece of Vee that had nearly separated. Horton typed in an override code, shutting the alarm off, but not before Vee was forced out of Eddie and thrown against the wall of the cage. Eddie slumped down, exhausted and his ears ringing.

“Incredible,” Horton whispered, “It isn’t just a beast.” Eddie staggered to his feet, gray shirt sweat-soaked and his face ragged.

“I,” he said, staggering up against the wall where Vee was, “am going to kill you myself.” Slowly, the symbiote began to latch onto his extended hand and pant leg.”You hear me? I’m not even going to need their help to do it!” 

_ “No we want to help,”  _ Vee said, tendrils of black arching over Eddie’s face and bringing the two back to one. Horton smiled and turned away, watching as the sample he had retrieved was being pushed through the tubes of the lab on its way to a bubbling vat of red liquid. Venom made the piece expand, stopping it in the middle of the tube, sticking to the nearly frictionless surface. The pressure of air behind the sample built, eventually dislodging it and rocketing it full force into the compound. Venom winced, pain receptors of the sample firing before being dissolved in the liquid. 

“What is that?” They growled, ready to eschew the dangers of breaking out and eating the guy right now. 

“This,” Horton said, turning a dial and turning up the heat, “Is Compound-D.” The compound vaporized and began traveling through the glass pipes towards Rocket’s cage. “It’s meant to be a psychoactive that makes people more open to suggestion. Though you,” he approached Venom’s cage and stared at the pair for a moment, “may complicate this.” 

“And why is that?” they snarled, slamming a fist against the glass, causing it to rattle in its frame. 

“I thought you were just a beast, now I see it to be different.”

“Wrong again.” A tendril slipped out from their foot and began worming its way into the almost imperceptible space between the glass and the floor

_ “Please don’t be alarmed, please don’t be alarmed, please don’t be alarmed,”  _ Eddie repeated as they ripped the glass from the frame and threw it against the ceiling, the whole sheet coming down on top of them and not shattering til it hit the floor. They grabbed Horton by the neck and shoved him against the wall. With a tendril, they freed Groot from the bag. The guard holding him had dropped the bag when the glass fell, covering his own head. Groot turned and shoved the man against the cage with a vine, knocking him out. 

“Where’s your funding from,” Venom hissed as Groot shattered the cage that held Rocket. 

“Genetech, Genetech! His name is Dr. Jose Santi!” Horton said, “He said that he liked the idea of the bio-synthetic cells and wanted to help me improve them!” Venom eased up on some of the pressure. “Most of the work was independent but a few days ago he sent me plans for Compound-D, said that he wanted to see if the cells would work for it!” Rocket hopped up on Venom’s shoulder, having retrieved a stack of notes from one of the desks. He flipped through them, Groot standing at Venom’s side. 

“Dr. Santinininini whatever wasn’t making a psychoactive you idiot,” he said, “This is straight-up mind-control juice.” Venom looked over at where the red semi-liquid was coalescing in the tube, unable to move forward or backward without an air-tight seal opening. 

“Should we be worried?” they said. 

“I am Groot.” 

“No, I don’t think we should make him take a whiff of it!” Rocket said. Venom cocked their head. 

“I mean…” Venom said. 

“Absolutely not!” 

“I am Groot.” 

“Why is it always ‘gang up on Rocket’ day? No. We’re going to get in contact with the others, get them down here and get Stark to come and destroy it.” Groot tugged on Rocket’s arm, directing his attention to the paper. “Or we could apparently just blow it up now.” 

Venom picked Horton up once again and tied him to a chair with an electrical cable they found. Rocket was already dumping different beakers of chemicals into a tennis-ball-sized container while Groot ripped wiring from the control consoles. 

“How much time do we have once you detonate it?” they asked. Rocket pressed something and it clicked. 

“About two minutes.” He jumped off the console and set the bomb directly under where the Compound had accumulated in the pipes. “This room’s gonna be the only one destroyed if we seal the blast doors but the whole place isn’t gonna be super stable. We can leave him in another lab if we want to let him live.”

“No unnecessary deaths,” Venom said, “We take him and call for an evacuation.”  
“Couldn’t we just pull the fire alarm?  
“No!” Venom shouted before Rocket had even finished his sentence. “No fire alarms.” Rocket pressed an intercom button, slumped over in defeat. 

“Attention all dumbass scientists who decided to work for these idiots,” he said, “You have a minute and a half before this whole place goes kablooey. Get out now.” Groot extended a vine and yanked Rocket off the console, and closed the door to the lab as he ran out, right on Venom’s heels. There were few scientists interspersed between the sparse groups of guards evacuating. Fewer still glanced at the escaped prisoners, Venom carrying Dr. Horton under his arm. They scooped Groot and Rocket up as they ran out, securing them to their back with a few tendrils before scaling the opposite cliff face, Horton screaming the whole time. When they were about half-way, they paused on an inset cliff and turned back to watch as the whole canyon shook, red-orange light leaking out of the tunnel they had just emerged from. Rocket whooped, laughing maniacally as Venom continued their climb. They reached the top of the cliff and Rocket punched Horton, knocking the man out. 

“He’ll be fine,” the not-raccoon said in response to Venom’s concerned look. He looked around, the first rays of dawn just starting to break over the horizon? “So, we start walking towards the safe-house?” 

“And hope that whoever picks us up thinks they’re just sleep-deprived?” Eddie said, Vee, melting back into his skin and forming a jacket and hat to protect against the cold desert. “Nah I think we should try and radio.” 

“No need!” Someone called, the Quinjet uncloaking above them. They looked up, Horton still slumped over. Clint was hanging out the back of the gangway as the plane lowered, kicking up the sand at the edge of the cliff. “Brock, he better not be dead.” Eddie smiled and hefted Horton over his shoulder as the jet landed, the Avengers and Guardians rushing out to meet them. 

They’d decided to delay the post-capture physicals, instead piling far too many people into the two Jeeps the Quinjet held and driving off to the South Rim to catch the sunrise. Horton had been left cuffed and unconscious in the plane. Peter and Gamora walked right up to the edge and leaned on the railing, watching as the sun cast parting clouds in infinite shades of gold and pink, the sky turning turquoise high above them. 

“It’s–” Peter started.

“Magnificent,” Gamora said. She leaned her head on his shoulder, watching the world come back into color. “Rocket said that Venom was the reason they escaped, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them.” Peter glanced over at where Eddie was admiring the sunrise, several steps back from the ledge. If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t see the two white eyespots poking out from his scarf. 

“Yeah, they’re cool,” Peter said. He wrapped an arm around Gamora’s shoulders and leaned in, the rest of the Guardians and Avengers on the mission spread along the viewing platform, but at that moment, they may as well have had the whole canyon to themselves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We did it! I'm happy with this one and will be taking a break from the /official/ sequel to Unconventional Methods that is in the works and working on another fic that's going to require some more research. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who commented, kudos-ed, and bookmarked this fic, every one of you quite literally made my day when you did that. 
> 
> The title of this chapter is from "Lady" by Styx.


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